The film opens with Jekyll drinking the formula that turns him into Hyde. After a few moments, he takes another liquid that transforms him back. Over the next few months, he falls in love with the minister's daughter, but he has also lost control of his transformations into his alter ego. Can he find a cure before he destroys the lives of all those around him?
This is not a great movie. Unlike other versions I'm familiar with, Mr. Hyde here is basically an out-of-control chimpanzee. You know he's a bad guy because he throws things around in the lab and knocks a little girl over in the street. There's one moment of violence, but the movie never really gives Hyde the sense of menace he needs (and at an eight minute running time, never has much chance).
The only thing I thought was really done in the movie was the initial transformation. While the camera trick they use is fairly obvious, it's very effectively done. It is also clear that the movie industry is learning from its successes as this is much better than The Wizard of Oz from just two years earlier.
Watching this feels like a bit of a step back from the other films I've seen. I'm curious to see how other fimmakers continue to fair against the likes of D.W. Griffith and Thomas Ince moving forward.
Available for free on YouTube.
Random film fact: In certain scenes, an actor named Harry Benham portrays Hyde in an uncredited appearance.
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